The present invention relates to flowable dry nutritive supplement mixtures, and to processes for making such mixtures. In a particular embodiment, the invention relates to a flowable dry methionine hydroxy analog mixture, and to the process for making such mixtures.
Amino acids are the basic chemical building blocks of all proteins. As such, they are fundamental to life, and critical to proper and complete nutrition for all living things. While certain amino acids are considered essential in the diets of particular individuals, all of the 20 amino acids that occur in proteins in nature are of critical dietary importance. Amino acid nutritive supplements and/or additives are currently commercially important in the animal/veterinary/pet food and human/medical/food/health supplement industries.
The amino acid methionine is an important nutritional additive in animal feed and pet foods and treats, and particularly in feed used in the dairy industry and in the beef cattle /feed lot industry. Methionine is also an important nutritional additive in the poultry industry.
In one specific area of application, the recent advent of practical software for modeling the amino acid needs of ruminants (Fox, 1992; von Keyserlingk, 1999) has created a rapidly growing market for specialty amino acid products that are protected from rumen fermentation and can deliver specific amino acids directly to the intestine of the animal. Methionine has been identified as one of the most frequently limiting amino acids for milk production, and it is the amino acid whose deficiency is the most difficult to address by manipulation of common feed ingredients. As such, commercial product development efforts have focused primarily on technologies for creating rumen-protected methionine products. Two basic approaches have been used: 1) encapsulation of DL-methionine; and 2) utilization of the inherent low rumen degradability of methionine hydroxy analog (MHA, or methylthiobutanoic acid). MHA, which is slowly degraded in the rumen, has a great deal of potential in the dairy and cattle industries specifically, and in the livestock industry generally, as a cost-effective source of bypass methionine.
Methionine hydroxy analog (specifically, 2-hydroxy-4-methylthio-butanoic acid) is an important commercial product. It is widely used by the poultry and swine industries as a methionine substitute. Although it was initially marketed as a calcium salt, the introduction of liquid MHA by Monsanto, in 1979, provided a much more cost effective source of MHA to the swine and poultry industries, and production of the calcium salt was discontinued in 1994. The advantages of liquid MHA include lower production costs and the economies of scale of liquid handling for large poultry and/or swine producers.
MHA is slowly degraded by rumen bacteria (Belasco, 1972), and thus is able to escape rumen fermentation (Belasco, 1980; Patterson et al., 1988; Koenig et al., 1999). This appears to occur both by natural washout with fluids and by direct transport across the rumen wall (McCollum et al., 2000). Recent research with cattle suggests 40% rumen escape at a 13% hourly rumen turnover rate (Schwab, 1998). MHA is rapidly converted to L-methionine by most ruminant organ tissues (Wester et al., 2000; Balasco, 1980). In dairy rations that are formulated for high levels of milk production and balanced for amino acids, MHA has consistently increased milk volume and/or milk fat composition (Robey, 1996; Koenig et al., 1999; von Keyserlingk et al., 1999).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,563 relates to the use of MHA to balance for the methionine requirement of the cow. The patent discloses a process for formulating a ruminant food ration in which the methionine needs of the ruminant are determined and a plurality of natural or synthetic feed ingredients, and the nutrient composition of each, is identified. A ration is then formulated from the identified feed ingredients and the MHA to meet the determined methionine needs of the ruminant.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,927 discloses a process for preparing a fatty acid calcium salt ruminant feed supplement product which contains an incorporated MHA calcium salt additive. Numerous patents pertain to the manufacture of 2-hydroxy-4-methylthiobutanoic acid.
Although there is increasing market demand for rumen-protected methionine sources, the cost of commercial sources of rumen-protected methionine has limited their use. Furthermore, although liquid MHA is less than one-half the cost of the encapsulated DL-methionine products per unit of rumen bypass activity, liquid MHA (indeed, liquid forms of micronutrients generally) has found limited industry adaptation. This is due to the fact that liquid MHA is a viscous liquid that tends to impart a tacky or sticky texture to organic carriers when applied at levels in excess of 10-15%. Recommendations of manufacturers of liquid MHA suggest that typical organic carriers be limited to 10-12% loading with liquid MHA in order to preserve flowability.
To date there are only two commercially available dry concentrated forms of MHA available. One form is a low inclusion (3%) liquid MHA encapsulated in calcium salts of fatty acids (Megalac Plus(copyright)). In this product the added MHA is merely an additional feature of what is actually a fat-source product, and the cost per unit of bypass methionine activity in the product is 4 times that of liquid MHA. However, the industry does view this product as a source of MHA for dairy rations.
The second dry form of MHA is a high-inclusion (52% liquid MHA) product (Alimet(trademark)). This product uses an inorganic silica-based carrier, and is costly. In fact, drying liquid MHA onto a carrier has met with limited success because: 1) as noted above, organic carriers have a limited ability to absorb the liquid MHA; and 2) inorganic carriers (typically aluminosilicates) add considerable cost and make no nutritive contribution to the animal.
Therefore, a significant need exists in several industries generally, such as the animal health and nutrition industry, the feed industry, and even in human food and health industries, and in the dairy and beef cattle industries particularly, for a dry amino acid nutritive product in an organic carrier. Such a product would provide amino acids in a more cost-effective, user-friendly form, with nutritive characteristics far superior to those of the alternative products that are currently available.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a flowable, dry nutritive supplement/organic carrier nutritional product, and a process for making the product.
It was unexpectedly discovered that a combination of a dry organic carrier, a liquid nutritive supplement, and a reactive metal oxide, when mixed under the proper conditions and in the proper proportions, will produce a flowable dry material that is well suited for use in the preparation of health/nutritive products. Thus, the present invention relates to flowable, dry nutritive supplement/organic carrier mixtures containing some variable level of a reactive metal oxide. In another aspect of the present invention there is provided the process for making the product mixture.